Dehydrobromination of Some Substituted Phenyl 3-Bromopropionates and Phenyl 3-Bromothiolopropionates. Transmission of Activation Effects through Acyl Bonds

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00164a017

Thirteen aryl 3-bromopropionates and nine aryl 3-bromothiolopropionates were prepared and subjected to dehydrohalogenation with sodium 3,4-dinitrophenoxide in dry tetrahydrofuran at 34.25 deg C.The second-order rate constants for the sulfur esters were approximately 10 times those for the corresponding oxygen esters.Good Hammett plots with ρ's of +0.81+/-0.04 and 0.98+/-0.04 for the oxygen and sulfur series, respectively, were obtained by using ?ⁿ.Activation parameters were measured for two oxygen and two sulfur esters; in both bases, low (12-13 kcal/mol) activatio n enthalpies and moderately large negative (19-21 eu) activation entropies were found.At 34.25 deg C, 3'-nitrophenyl 3-bromopropionate dehydrohalogenated 14 times more rapidly than 3'-nitrophenyl 3-chloropropionate; phenyl 3-bromothiolopropionate dehydrohalogenated 11 times more rapidly than the phenyl 3-chlorothiolopropionate.The rate constant ratio for 4'-bromophenyl 3-bromopropionate vs. 4'-bromophenyl 3-bromopropionate-2-d was 1.84; the monodeuterated compound yielded olefinic product with 65percent D.H was abstracted preferentially from 4'-chlorophenyl 3-bromothiolopropionate partially deuterated in the 2-position, but no kinetic results were obtained.No evidence of reversibility was found with 2,4-dinitrophenol-d, and the addition of 2,4-dinitrophenol to kinetic mixtures had essentially no effect on the rate conatants.The results are interpreted to indicate an E2 process near the EL/E1cB borderline with the thiolo ester deviating somewhat more toward an E1cB-I process.